Warren Buffet’s Annual Reports were the first annual reports I ever read. To this day, I go back and re-read them to remind myself what business writing is really about – making a connection with words. That’s it. The more you can connect, the more people will read you. They may not agree with you – more on that later – but they will read what you have to say.

‘Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.’ Warren Buffett

Warren Buffet is from Omaha. Not sophisticated LA or cosmopolitan New York. Saying their simple folk is a bit patronizing. Rather they saw things as they see them. His Annual Reports are a joy to read. Most mainstream annual reports are like sedatives. You read a page or two and then the zzzzs.

Warren Buffet’s Nine Steps To Effective Business English

What’s this got to do with business writing? Well, if customers don’t understand what you’re selling, they won’t buy. If employees don’t understand your principles, they won’t follow. If you don’t understand your own vision, you can’t lead.

Writing is a process of clarification. We edit to make things clearer. Let’s start at the top.

1. Customer Focus – it sounds obvious but… write the letter so that it addresses ‘their’ needs, not yours. It’s easy to get caught up when under pressure to sell or promote your ideas but, step back, and look at this letter from the customer’s perspective. Put yourself in their shoes. What’s their impression of your letter?
2. Facts – likewise, stick to what you know. Don’t make up facts, figures, amounts, dates or other numbers to impress the reader. You’ll look very foolish when these are seen as ‘mis-informaton’. We all know what that word really means? Avoid saying, “I feel that”. Rather use “I believe that” or “I think that” and then explain why you believe this to be true.
3. Include Technical and Legal Document As Attachments – if you need to refer to technical documentation or other such material, don’t insert it in the document, rather cross-reference in the Appendix. For printed material, print out the material and include it in a binder. This also applies to sales collateral, such as case studies and white papers.
4. Jargon – write in a professional tone, avoiding slang, jargon and acronyms. Few things annoy me more than unexplained acronyms appearing in the middle of a case study. Am I supposed to know what this means? If I don’t, I feel a bit stupid. Is that what the writer meant?
5. One Page Max – train yourself to keep business communication under one page. You can do this by compressing the main points together and using lists to break out the key points. If the document needs to be more than a page, then consider calling the person or arranging a meeting. Also, if it’s more than a page, it’s unlikely that the customer, employee, or colleague will respond to all the points.
6. Proof the letter – for business critical information pay special attention to the financial data. You can be forgiven for the occasional grammar or spelling mistake, but you won’t be forgiven if the numbers are wrong. Check these more than once. Where possible, get a colleague to check them also.
7. See The Big Picture – have the overview in mind before you start. Don’t start writing your next business plan when it’s still half cooked in your brain. Think it through first and then start writing.
8. Short Words – don’t write ‘utilize’ when ‘use’ will do. Don’t procure meat products when you mean get a sandwich. Use simple everyday words. There are no Nobel prizes for emails. Use direct, immediate language that describes the main topic. If you go over a page, the reader may leave it to later… and never get to read it. So, if shorter letters have a better chance of getting read, then use this approach.
9. Structure Your Letter – Before writing your business letter, make a list of the key points you need to cover. Prioritize them. For example, as prospective clients are more likely to read the first two or three bullet points, highlight these to convey their importance. Then work through the other points.

Conclusion

What I’ve learned from Buffet is that annual reports, proposals and other business documents can be written is a simple, easy-to-read format. They don’t have (and shouldn’t) intimidate the reader. Or bore them.

The next time your boss says the Annual Report needs to be more ‘serious’ and more professional, hand them a copy of Buffet’s letter and see what they think.

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the Business Plan Consultant Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com

PS: The Business Plan Template is here

PPS: Another great read from Buffet is this Plain English Guide He wrote the Foreword for the SEC.

Over the past few weeks we’ve looked at how to write business proposals (and business plans) to generate new business opportunities. One way to succeed in this area is to understand how the ‘Business Case’ is generated within an organization (as this is often written before the actual RFP is sent out) and the type of concerns the business analysts have when writing Business Cases.

The second point to consider it that if your relationship with the client is sound, you can help them address the salient points in the business case, for example, if they approach you with a ‘rough idea’ of what they want. Business Cases can be seen as ways to ‘test the water’ from a financial perspective and see if the core concept is worth investing in.

Business Case Template

What is a Business Case?

The Business Case outlines the benefits, competitive edge, and other gains the company stands to make if it invests in this project. For certain projects, the Business Case is a fore-runner for a Request For Proposal (aka Invitation To Tender) where business proposals are accepted from external firms.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll look at how to write, review and assess business proposals. For now, let’s focus developing the Business Case.

I’ve put together this Business Case checklist which covers most all areas related to the project/service you are exploring. This checklist should help you address areas such as Achievability, Benefits, Costs, Critical success factors, Resources, Risks, Scope, Strategic fit, and Value For Money.

Business Case Checklist

To ensure that your business case is complete, examine the following points:

1. Achievability — this ensures that you (and other parties) have the experience, expertise, and resources to manage the project. Examine different approaches that can overcome any potential obstacles, e.g. additional resources, timelines, or budgets.
2. Assumptions — speak to all stakeholders and gather their main assumptions, e.g. in the case of outsourcing IT development, that the Intellectual Property Rights will be owned by your organization. Examine whether these assumptions are valid or not.
3. Benefits — outline the benefits, and opportunities, that each option provides. Identify the high-level benefits that align with your company’s main business objectives, and explore how these benefits can be measured
4. Costs — obtain indicative figures for the cost of the project over its entire lifecycle, not only the implementation costs. You may want to factor in 15-20% for scope creep, if appropriate. Also, determine who will pay for the project, if they have agreed to do this, and the payment method. Examine how to get an acceptable balance of cost, benefit, and risk.
5. Critical success factors — seek consensus with the other stakeholders on what constitutes success. If you do not take this step, stakeholder will have different expectations of the final deliverable. Define success factors that are specific, measurable, and achievable; identify any other factors that could affect success, such as the delivery of other parallel projects.
6. Dependencies — outline the internal (e.g. staff availability) and external dependencies (changes in the marketplace, new government legislation).
7. Options – gather details on all available options that could meet the business needs. Consider the trade-offs associated with each option, and the degree to which each option meets the project’s needs. Make sure that you have included the overall supply chain’s needs, i.e. the organization, partners, suppliers, staff and customers.
8. Procurement — send an Invitation to Tender (ITT) to prospective contractors. Evaluate their bids. Hold presentations with the most impressive bids.
9. Project Group — identify those (individuals, units, and departments) who are involved and/or affected by the project. Determine their interests and endeavor to resolve any potential conflicts.
10. Resources — scope the anticipated resource and capabilities requirements that you will need, such as staff, IT, workspace, equipment, and funding.
11. Risks – Capture all anticipated risks – plan contingences. Prepare a high-level estimate of the costs for each risk.
12. Scope – define what is in/out of scope with the existing budget; scope what can be delivered with a reduced budget, with indicative delivery dates; ensure that there are no conflicts with other on-going projects. Look at the impact that delaying the project or under-delivering could have.
13. Stakeholders — identify their role, responsibility, availability, and contingencies if they become incapacitated/released from the project.
14. Strategic fit – confirm that the project is still required and that its objectives are in line with the company’s business goals.
15. Value For Money — examine how to get Value For Money from the contractors, contractors and other third parties. Agree what constitutes VFM with the project stakeholders.

Once you have checked off these points, your business case should be ready to send to the project stakeholders.

What are your thoughts? What have I missed?

About the Author: Ivan Walsh provides Business Tips for Smart People on Klariti.com. His also runs the popular Business Planning Blog at http://www.ivanwalsh.com. Follow him on Twitter @ivanwalsh

PS: The Business Case Template is here.

You can track DHL, UPS and other packages by tracking number from inside Bing.

For example, type DHL 123456789

Let me know if this works or not. I dont have any UPS packages to trace so am taking Microsoft at their word.

Has it worked for you?

Bing provides great general search results, relevance, a big index and speed — all of the hallmarks of a good search engine.

However, because sorting through search results can often be time consuming, Bing organizes popular results in a different
way. 

It is designed to help you get the answers you’re looking for without having to guess the right way to phrase a search term.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12205

I had mixed success with this. Let me know what you think.

How to check the number of webpages indexed in Bing.com.Type site:yoursite.com  to see how many pages have been actually indexed in bing.com.

For example, site:ivanwalsh.com.

To verify that your website is in the index, type url:yoursite.com.

For example, url:ivanwalsh.com returns a single result.

Tip: Check that your robot.txt file allows Bing.com to index your website.

If you are outside the USA, you may not be getting all Bing’s features and only it’s localized version.

To view all the options in Bing, which may not be available in your region, visit http://www.bing.com/worldwide.aspx?FORM=WHSE and set English – US as your default region.

To add your site on Bing, click on http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx

This link will direct you to the submit URL page of Bing where you can provide the URL of your blog or website

Jakob Nielsen explains the different benefits that Short versus Long articles bring to your site, especially if you are running an online business. In his newsletter, he asks “should your website have concise or in-depth content?”

His conclusion is that:

a) If you want many readers, offer short content. This is ideal for advertising-driven sites or sites that sell impulse buys.

b) If your readers need a solution, offer comprehensive coverage. This is more suitable for solutions to complicated problems.

He recommends writing articles instead of blog postings as people who “really need something are the highest-value users because they’re more likely to turn into paying customers.”

Read more at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/content-strategy.html

Word 2007 is very different than Word 2003. One of the frustrations I have found is trying to find out how to do things in 2007 that I can do very quickly in 2003. Learning to customize the Quick Access toolbar is one way to make your life a little bit better!

The Quick Access toolbar puts frequently used commands at the top of the screen, so you can access them quickly. Makes sense!

The only problem is that when you start Word 2007, there are only three commands here: Save, Undo, and Redo.

You can add more commands to the Quick Access toolbar and customize it to suit your needs. Don’t add too many or it may impact the application’s performance.

To add a command to the Quick Access toolbar:

1. Click the downward-pointing arrow beside the toolbar.
2. Select from any of the commands that appear or click More Commands if you don’t see the one you would like to add.
3. Select a category from the box labeled “Choose commands from”. In the box below that, select a command. Click OK
4. The command you selected now appears on the Quick Access toolbar.

More tips at: www.wordtipsandtricks.com

The public website or intranet that keeps screaming for attention with useless images and vain content will get little from the impatient and sceptical customer.

The needs of the organization are great, and the larger and older the organization gets, the greater those needs become. The problem is that the internal needs of the organization rarely match the needs of customers.

Organizations grow strong because they’ve done something right.

Dell is a good example. It grew as a customer centric
organization, but as it got bigger it began to lose that true
customer focus.

[ad#5links]

Around 2001, you had two options on the Dell homepage: navigate

by product (laptop, desktop, etc.) or navigate by audience
(home, business, etc.). Every test I have done indicates that
about 90% of people prefer to navigate by product in buying
computer stuff. In fact, audience navigation makes many people
cynical. “Do businesses gets better deals than me?;” I just want
to buy a laptop, why do I have to select what group I belong
to;” “I’m a home business. Which should I select?”

By about 2003, Dell had gotten rid of the product navigation,
forcing the customer to choose an audience. I am told Dell did
this because the audience types mirror the powerful business
units within Dell. These business units could not agree how to
share revenue if someone simply selected “Laptop”.

Dell was once young and customer-centric, but like nearly all
organizations, it grew old and organization-centric. It began to
suffer from organaritis. Similar to arthritis in humans,
organaritis afflicts mainly older organizations. A stiffening of
the joints makes it hard for the organization to change and move
quickly.

There are signs that Dell is trying to recover from organaritis.
Recently, I noticed that it is publishing reviews of its
products on its website. Yes, it allows negative reviews. That
to me is impressive and makes it more likely I will buy a Dell
again. (After what Lenovo has done to the ThinkPad, the choices
have become more limited.)

Does your organization have organaritis? If you answer yes to
one or more of the following questions you probably need to seek
medical help:

• Do you have pictures of very important people within your
organization (your needy children) on your webpages?

• Do these needy children require messages from them to be
published prominently on the site?

• Do you have big pictures of smiling actors pretending to be
customers? (Shiny, happy people.)

• Do you have needy departments whose stated objective in life
is to get some real estate on the homepage?

• Do you have needy, powerful managers who demand that their
latest programs and initiatives get prominence on the
homepage?

• Is your culture one that believes that the primary purpose of
the website is to get customers to do what you want them to do,
rather than help them quickly and easily do what they came to
do?

• Does your organization embrace verbosity atrocities?

Headings such as: “Start your way to a clear new world”.

Sentences such as: “We are delighted to announce that our holistic approach
embraces 50,000 ft thinking which is unparalleled in its reach
and depth of understanding of the globalization challenges that
must be embraced holistically if we are to thrive in
ever-changing, shifting, hazy, somewhat unclear, cloudy, and
sometimes downright quite difficult to see through clearly into
the must be embraced holistic future scenarios.”

Gerry McGovern

Content management solutions: Gerry McGovern

http://www.gerrymcgovern.com

We reviewed PerfectIt last month and were impressed with its ability to edit and test our documents.

Daniel Heuman, the founder of Intelligent Editing Ltd has prepared this tutorial that goes into more detail and show some of the ways you can get more out of this editing product. Here’s Daniel.

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PerfectIt does not require any kind of configuration. Once you install it, you can use it straight away to find mistakes in any MS Word document.

This article is for users who want to get even more out of PerfectIt by fine-tuning it to search for particular errors or to enforce a style guide.

Fine-tuning PerfectIt

You can set your rules for how PerfectIt checks:

• Hyphenation
• Common typos
• Numbers in sentences
• Spelling variations
• Keywords left in the body of text
• Use of capital letters
• Punctuation of bullets and lists
• Capitals in bullets and lists

There are two ways to build your rules into PerfectIt, you can add them organically when PerfectIt runs or you can use the configuration screen.

Common Errors in English Usage

Organic fine-tuning

The easiest way to add rules for checking is to teach PerfectIt your preferences as you use it. When PerfectIt finds an error, just click the “Customise Test” menu to either exclude that from future searches or build a rule for checking it.

For example, if PerfectIt states that an abbreviation appears in two forms: “NASA” and “N.A.S.A.”, you can use the menus to specify that “NASA” is always preferred. After that, PerfectIt will prompt for any instance of “N.A.S.A.” with any document you test.

You can specify an even wider set of rules by using the configuration screen. To load the configuration screen, select “Advanced…” from the “Customise Test” menu. This will provide options for setting your own checking rules. For example, to specify that semi-colons are the preferred punctuation for short bullet points, choose “Settings for Lists, Numbers and Compounds”, then choose “Punctuate Short Items”, then select “A Semi-Colon” from the drop down menu. Save your changes and PerfectIt will notify you if it finds any bullet points with other types of punctuation.

The advantage of customised versions of PerfectIt

It is possible to share configurations between computers – just copy the files ‘CustomExclusionLists’ and ‘CustomFindLists’ from one computer to another. However, for organisations, the best way to ensure that rules are standardised across computers is to have Intelligent Editing prepare a customised version for you. Intelligent Editing will scan your library for inconsistencies and review those with you. Then we’ll build a version of PerfectIt that is custom-designed for your organisation. We’ll include all of your preferences and supply you with a version that is built for the specifics of your style guide.

Conclusion

Style guides are important documents that all too often go ignored. With PerfectIt, you can quickly and easily check that reports, articles, contracts and proposals are all aligned with your style guide. You can build in the checking that is most important to you and ensure that documents are reviewed completely for the mistakes that matter most. To try PerfectIt for free, download it now.

About the Author

Daniel Heuman, Founder, Intelligent Editing Ltd.

Intelligent Editing Ltd specializes in software solutions that deliver faster, more accurate editing for professionals. http://intelligentediting.com

There is the easy way and the hard way to do things in life. This is one of the easy ways. You can use this trick to setup Blogger so that it automatically adds a snippet of Adsense code to your Blogger template. This saves you the hassle of cutting and pasting Adsense into each post or other workarounds that eat up your time.

To get Adsense to appear between the Blogger post title and Blogger post body:

1. Log into Blogger.

2. Open the Template page.

3. Click the Edit HTML tab and select Expand Widget Templates.

4. Search for these lines in the HTML code.

Search for the line <p><data:post.body/></p>

5. Add these lines of code (depending on how you want your ads to appear)

<b:if cond=’data:blog.pageType == “item”‘>
Place Your Google Adsense Code here
<p><data:post.body/></p>
Place Your Google Adsense Code here
<b:else/>
<p><data:post.body/></p>
</b:if>

6. Click Save.

Your Google Ads will now appear above every post you make.

Take a look at http://ivanwalsh.blogspot.com/ to see how it works.

Here are some more Bing tips that you might like.

Ringtones for your mobile phone
You can download Bing-themed ringtones. These are MP3 files to make your phone Bing Bing.

[ad]

Yesterdays Wallpaper
Click the icon in the lower right corner to see yesterday’s Bing wallpaper.

Maps
Map addresses using this Bing Maps Accelerator

Maps for Outlook
Internet mapping and Outlook

Translator
Language translation at your fingertips with this Accelerator

Shop and Save
Gives you instant product prices, cashback offers and information and helps you save shopping online (Accelerator)

Surf Canyon
Unleash the power of search like never before

Finance
Get stock quotes from Bing with this Web Slice

Traffic
Get traffic updates from Bing with this Web Slice

Image Search
Search Images with Bing (Accelerator)

Define with Bing
Define words or phrases with Bing (Accelerator)

Weather from Bing
Get weather updates from Bing with this Web Slice

You can download all of these from http://www.ieaddons.com/en/search/?search=bing

Remove the Bing background image
To remove the background image in Bing’s search engine, enter the following url: http://www.bing.com/?rb=0

This displays the homepage without the background image, making the download faster.

Bing IP Address lookup

Use Bing to lookup any IP address

IP:[IP Address]

Change [IP Address] with a valid IP, such as the IP address you want to track.

Turn Every Bing search into an RSS feed

You can save every search on Bing into an RSS feed. This means you can pull the search results into your blog or website and
increase your web traffic.

Access the feeds from the browser’s toolbars (or by pointing a feed reader to the search result’s URL) and then add

&format=rss

to the results.

A search for Snagit v 9 would be available as an RSS feed from the following URL
http://www.bing.com/search?q=Snagit+9&go=&qb=1&format=rss

Contains parameter refines searches

In Bing, the parameter ‘contains’ tells the search engine to only look for websites that contain that search term. For
example

iPhone contains:download

Beatles contains:mp3
Annual Report contains:doc
Display wallpaper images

If you’re a fan of Bing’s background wallpaper, you’ll like this!

You can display Bing’ wallpaper images in its Image search results. Search for a term in Bing image search and then click on
the Size category in the left sidebar.

This automatically display various size filters including an option for wallpaper. This display only images that have the
exact size of the computer screen resolution.

Preview Search Results

Hover over any search result and a small bar with a bubble appears. If you hover over the bubble, it gives you a preview of
the landing page on the site.

Sort Images by format and type
Bing can tell the difference between a photograph and an illustration. Use the similar images link when you hover over an
image to see similar related images.

Track Celebrities
Bing xRank tracks celebrities and ranks them. xRank shows News results, Image results, Video results , biography details, and digg links.

Get the weather forecast

In the search box, type the name of the city followed by weather or forecast.

New York Forecast

Paris weather

Convert one unit to another
In the Bing search box, type the quantity, followed by in, followed by the conversion.

For example, type 15 kilometers in miles or 33 degrees F in Celsius.
The operator ‘in’ convert units of measurements for distance, weight, time, volume, and temperature.

Stock Quotes
In the search box, type the ticker symbol followed by stock or quote.

For example to find the financial quotes of Microsoft, type MSFT stock or MSFT quote.

Get Statistical Information
In the Bing.com search box, type what you want to find. For example, population of England, or iphones in USA.

Mathematical Equations
Enter the equation that you want to solve, for example,
Calculations:
7+5/2-(45*2)
sqrt 9
sin 11 * 66
13% of 994

Find Hotels in a city

Use the following as examples:
New York hotels
hotels in Egypt
Dublin hotels

Track Flight Status
To see the status of your flight:
flight status for United – enter the flight number and press Get Status .
flight status - Bing prompts you to enter the flight name and number on the first result itself. Enter the flight name and
number and Get Status.

Search sites with filetype
To search for websites that contain links to Microsoft Windows Media Audio (.wma) files, type music contains:wma.

Search for files with a particular filetype.
To find document created in PDF format, type the name of the document, eg report, followed by filetype:pdf.

MP3 Music Files
Type U2 contains:mp3 will show pages that are about U2 and link to MP3 files.

Web pages for a specific language
To find results in a particular language, select the language code after the language: keyword. For example, if you are
searching for laptops then type “laptops” language:en.

Find Organizations
To find results about golf but that primarily pertain to the organization, type golf prefer:organization.

Web pages from a specific country
Enter the country or region code directly after the loc: keyword. Use a logical OR to include one more language. For example,
to see web pages about wine from the France or Italy , type wine (loc:FR OR loc:IT). Image results are shown at the bottom of
the page.

Find Blogs
To see blogs from the BBC websites, type “blogging” (site:bbc.co.uk) .

Find RSS feeds
To find RSS feeds about iphone, type feed:iphone.

Find RSS feeds of particular website
To find webpages on the New York Times website that contain RSS feeds, typesite:www.nytimes.com hasfeed:iphone. ‘hasfeed:’
Finds webpages that contain an RSS feed on a website for the terms you search for.

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Lots of dumb mistakes can slip into even the best writing. Here we look specifically at reports and other technical documents to provide authors with a checklist they can use for their work.

1. Numbers that don’t add up

Just one table where the numbers don’t add up correctly is enough to shatter confidence in an entire report. Usually this happens when tables are updated manually.

The best thing to do is to keep all original tables in a spreadsheet and copy them in each time. You can make sure that colleagues are not tempted to make changes manually if you paste tables in as graphics.

2. Incorrect table and figure references

What does a reader think when he/she reads that “evidence is provided in Table 3″ but then is unable to find that table?

Tip: How to choose the Right Style Guide

Or what happens if the reader finds Table 3 but the evidence is completely unrelated because it should have referred to Table 4?

To make sure it doesn’t happen to you, use automatic cross-references.

3. Unsourced data

Numbers that appear from nowhere can be just as infuriating as numbers that do not add up. To present a credible argument, evidence needs a source. Insert footnotes as you write.

4. Leaving in details to be completed later

Have you ever come across a document that refers to a XX% increase? A sure-fire way of alerting your reader to careless checking is to leave in phrases like “more details to be added on this later”, or “note to self: check this is correct”.

A good way to avoid this is to agree a format for all comments within your company and for everyone to adopt the same one.

That way a search can pick these out. You can also use automatic tools to find these errors. PerfectIt contains a test that scans documents for any of these editorial comments that have been left in.

5. Blinding with science

Technical reports are often intended for a non-technical audience. Sometimes authors can get away with blinding the audience with technical language and complex theory.

More often, authors that try that will have to face a complete re-write. Technical explanations belong in an annex, keep the flow of your text simple.

6. False accuracy

The way that numbers are presented conveys important information about confidence in the result.

If the benefit to the US economy is $1billion, it means that it could be anywhere from $0.5bn to $1.5bn. If the benefit to the US economy is $1,050,023,178 then it means we are confident that the benefit is exactly $1,050,023,178. The degree of rounding should reflect the degree of confidence and the likely range implied.

7. Inconsistent writing

There are an incredible number of consistency errors that can creep into technical documents, especially if there is more than one author. A review of those can be found here. With careful checking and tools like PerfectIt, you can cut down on consistency errors and present your results in your corporate style

8. Over-reliance on spell check

Spell-check is a great tool. But it cannot spot every error. It’s easy to write the word “manage” without the second “a”. A Google search shows that there are thousands of documents that use the phrase “project manger”. Errors like these can be difficult to spot and can also be the most embarrassing when clients find them. PerfectIt includes a test for some of the most frequently found typos andcustomised versions of PerfectIt can be geared to specific industries to increase the power of automated checking.

9. Less is more

Technical reports are not paid for by the word. So long reports are not an advantage. They are difficult to read and harder to check. Sharp, concise reports that are accompanied by more detailed annexes and supporting evidence are better for making almost any case.

10. Acronyms / abbreviations that are not defined

TLAs help to keep your text short. However, if your readers do not know that ‘TLA’ stands for ‘three letter acronym’ then it’s important that you define the word in its first instance. Tools like PerfectIt can be used to scan your text for acronyms that are missing a definition as well as instances where the acronym is used long before the definition appears. A table of acronyms can also be helpful for the reader and PerfectIt can generate this automatically.

More mistakes

What mistakes annoy you the most? Is there a simple solution? Drop us a line and let us know what you think are the worst mistakes in business writing. We’ll put the best entries on the Intelligent Editing website.

About the Author

Daniel Heuman, Founder, Intelligent Editing Ltd.

Intelligent Editing Ltd specializes in software solutions that deliver faster, more accurate editing for professionals. http://intelligentediting.com

I have been guilty of making this mistake more than once. I know, bad boy! Conventional wisdom says that a lot is not a word in English and is incorrect. “a lot” is the correct word for most purposes. A few links to set the record straight… [ad#ad1] “Alot means nothing because it is not a word in the English language and therefore should not to be used.”

http://www.garypaulson.net/archives/allot-vs-alot-vs-a-lot-spelling/ “A lot (two words) is an informal phrase meaning a large portion or large quantity of something.”

http://www.garypaulson.net/archives/allot-vs-alot-vs-a-lot-spelling/ “Allot is a verb that means to distribute, to assign a portion, or to divide. Example: The instructor allotted me 20 minutes to take the test.”

 http://www.garypaulson.net/archives/allot-vs-alot-vs-a-lot-spelling/

 More information at http://www.garypaulson.net/archives/allot-vs-alot-vs-a-lot-spelling/

Since I added a site map to the site, traffic has went up. Not a huge amount, but there has been a difference. And I know that Google indexes it, so that has to be good. Don’t have one yourself? Try these. Most are v simple to install. Any questions, drop me a line.

What are sitemaps?

Here’s what the experts say:

“Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. In its simplest form, a Sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.

Web crawlers usually discover pages from links within the site and from other sites. Sitemaps supplement this data to allow crawlers that support Sitemaps to pick up all URLs in the Sitemap and learn about those URLs using the associated metadata. Using the Sitemap protocol does not guarantee that web pages are included in search engines, but provides hints for web crawlers to do a better job of crawling your site.

Sitemap 0.90 is offered under the terms of the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License and has wide adoption, including support from Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.”

What site maps plugin do I use on this

You can get all the details over here. http://www.arnebrachhold.de/

“This plugin generates a XML-Sitemap compliant sitemap of yourWordPress blog.”

This format is supported by Ask.com, Google, YAHOO and MSN Search. More information what XML-Sitemaps are and how they can help you to get indexed by the major search engines can be found at Sitemaps.org and the searchenginewatch blog.

You can use the following tools to generate or maintain files in the XML Sitemaps format, an open standard defined on sitemaps.org and supported by the search engines such as Ask, Google, Microsoft Live Search and Yahoo!.

Tools for creating site maps

Sitemap files generally contain a collection of URLs on a website along with some meta-data for these URLs.

• Google Sitemap Generator(Linux/Windows)
• Perl Sitemap Generator(Perl)
• Python Sitemap Generator(Python)
• Simple Sitemaps(PHP)

Content Management Systems

• ASP.NET
• Coppermine
• DotClear(Spanish)
• Drupal
• LifeType
• PHPNuke
• Textpattern
• vBulletin
• WordPress

Downloadable Tools

• GWebCrawler & Sitemap Creator
• G-Mapper
• IntelliMapper$
• KeyLimeTie Sitemap Generator$
• MediaCET Diadematus
• Microsys A1 Sitemap Generator$
• Site Magellen
• Site Map Pro$
• Vigos Gsitemap
• AuditMyPc.com Sitemap Generator
• Safe Area SitemapGenerator

• SitemapDoc
• Smart-IT-Consulting Google Sitemaps XML Validator
• XML-Sitemaps Generator

If you know any more or would like to recommend some, please let me know.

My inbox is open all hours.
Regards,
Ivan

PS – if you haven’t got enough to do already, you can follow me on Twitter @ivanwalsh

This Business Plan template includes a 40 page template in MS Word, and 10 Excel spreadsheets.

Sections include Marketing Plan, Market Analysis, SWOT Analysis, Sales Forecast, Development Plan, Operational Plan, Financial Plan, 12-Month Profit and Loss Projection, Projected Cash Flow, Balance Sheet, Break-Even Analysis, Personal Financial Statement, and Exit Strategy.

Download Now for only $9.99 – Buy Here!

Sample Screenshots

Table of Contents

1 Executive Summary

2 Company Description
2.1 Mission Statement
2.2 History
2.3 Markets and Products
2.4 Objectives
2.5 Current Situation

3 Products and Services
3.1 Description of Products/Services
3.2 Production Process
3.3 Distribution/Service Delivery
3.4 New Products

4 Marketing Plan
4.1 Market Analysis
4.1.1 Research Findings
4.1.2 Growth Projections
4.2 Market Trends
4.3 Product
4.4 Customer Demographics
4.5 Competition
4.6 SWOT Analysis
4.7 Marketing Strategy
4.7.1 Positioning
4.7.2 Promotion
4.8 Price Comparison
4.9 Customer Service Plans
4.9.1 Retaining Customers
4.9.2 Customer Complaint Handling
4.10 Sales Forecast

5 Development Plan
5.1 Current Status
5.2 Development Plans
5.3 Development Timetable
5.4 Development Risks

6 Operational Plan
6.1 Current Premises
6.2 Current Premises Financial Details
6.3 Equipment, Vehicles & Fittings
6.4 Insurance Details
6.5 Production
6.6 Future Location
6.7 Legal Environment
6.8 Personnel
6.9 Inventory
6.10 Suppliers

7 Management and Organization
7.1 Professional and Advisory Support
7.2 Key People Details
7.2.1 Key Person
7.2.2 Key Person
7.2.3 Total Salary Costs
7.2.4 Number of Employees

8 Personal Financial Statement
8.1 Methods of Bank Finance
8.2 Assets as Security
8.3 Repayment for Borrowings

9 Financial Plan
9.1 12-Month Profit and Loss Projection
9.2 Projected Cash Flow
9.3 Opening Day Balance Sheet
9.4 Break-Even Analysis
9.5 Exit Strategy

10 Appendices
10.1 Glossary of Terms

What’s included in the template pack

The Business Case template is in Microsoft Word and Excle formats and can be downloaded online for only $9.99.

The template pack includes the following documents:

• Business Plan Template 40 pages
• Balance Sheet 1 x worksheet
• Breakeven Analysis 1 x worksheet
• Cash Flow 1 x worksheet
• Competitive Analysis 1 x worksheet
• Costs 1 x worksheet
• General Demographic Profile 1 x worksheet
• Market Research 1 x worksheet
• Personal Financial Statement 2 x worksheet
• Profit and Loss Projection 1 x worksheet
• Sales Forecast 1 x worksheet

Download Now for only $9.99 – Buy Here!

FAQS

Q: What file formats are the templates?

A: Microsoft Word, Excel and Visio.

Q: How soon can I download them?

A: You can download the file instantly. After you pay online, you are sent to a page where you can download the template online.

Q: What is the End User License Agreement?

A: You can read the License Agreement here

Need to know more?

Drop me a line at ivan at klariti dot com and I’ll get back to you asap.

This Software Testing Template pack includes 57 logs, forms, checklists, and templates to help you succeed as a Software Testing Manager. By using these templates, you can reduce time spent creating forms and checklists from scratch, ensure your team have a standardized approach to testing, and improve customer confidence.

• Test Plan Template (29 pages) defines the scope, strategy, test environment, control procedures, test execution, release criteria, and budgets.

• Acceptance Test Plan (21 pages) gains customer acceptance and verifies that the final deliverable meets their requirements. Action Item Log, Change Control Log, Status Report, Test Scripts, Test Case, Testing Budget etc…

Download Now for only $29.99 – Buy Here!

Sample Screenshots

Table of Contents – includes 20 Microsoft Excel templates

Action Item Log

Allocate an action item number, description, status (Low/Medium/High), date reported, resource it was assigned to, its due date, and other additional comments.

Change Control Log

Identify the basis for the change; confirm whether it is disapproved or approved. Include the Software Change Request Number (SCR) #, Requirements #, date submitted, and whether it is approved/not approved, on hold, in progress, or cancelled.

Change History Log
Describe the date, author and history.

Data Access Control
For each Person or Group, identify the individuals who have access to the test cases and their status, e.g. all DEV has access to the Test Cases for Web Project 22B.

Log Status
For each log, identify its Log ID, the nature of the risk/issue, and whether it is Open or Closed.

Failed Scripts
Identify the Area where the script failed, and provide details on the Set, Date, with a description of the error and its Severity, e.g. minor error, major error etc.

Open Issues
Identify all the open issues by number (#); list when they were created; who raised them, provide a brief description with details of its Assigned/Target Date/Category, Status (e.g. Open of Closed), Resolution and its Resolution Date.

Quality Log
When performing the checks, identify the Ref #, its Module, the Method of Checking, name of the Tester, its Planned Date, Date Completed, details of the Result, the Action Items (i.e. tasks) and the Sign-off Date.

Risk Log
Identify the Risk Number, its Date, Type (e.g. Business/Project/Stage) a brief description, Likelihood %, Severity (e.g. Low or Medium) Impact, Action Required, who is was Assigned To and its Status.

Roles and Responsibilities
Identify all the roles on the project, with details of their responsibilities. Include contact names and email addresses.

Status Report
Identify the function that is under test, enter its Business value on a scale of 1-5 with 1 the lowest value and 5 the highest (or whichever numbering system you wish to use); details of the problem severity broken out by a factor of 1 to 5. The total number of issues (a.k.a anomalies) is calculated in the final column.

Test Script
Enter the Area under test, its Set, whether it has Passed or Failed, with a Description of the Error and its Severity, e.g. L/M/H.

Test Script List
Enter the Area under test, its Test Case ID, Bug ID, Bug Fixed Date, Bug Fixed By and Fix verified By details.

Task Preparation
Use this checklist to prepare for the Test Plan: Review Software Requirements Specifications, Identify functions/modules for testing, Perform Risk Analysis. The second checklist is for the Test Plan Population and helps to: Identify/Prioritize features to be tested, Define Test Strategy; Identify Test Tools; Identify Resource Requirements etc.

Test Case
This Test Case template is used to capture the name of the Test Case; its Description; Start Conditions; Pass Criteria; Tester Name; Build Number; identify the Test Data Used; Steps, Action and Expected Result.

Test Tracking Report
Use this to track the progress of the software tests each Week, capture which are Planned, were Attempted and numbers that are Successful.

Testing Budget
Use this spreadsheet to plan your quarterly and annual testing budgets. Identify, quantify and cost the resources required by your team to complete projects successfully.

Validation Log
Use this to capture the Project’s Completion Date; Test Event; Test Case ID; Test Date; Tester; Test Results and Status.

Version Control Log
Use this to track the Product’s Version No., its Date, and Approvals.

Web Usability Report
Use this to analyze the usability of a web project, such as the performance of its Navigation, Graphics, Error Messages, and the quality of its micro-content.

Download Now for only $29.99 – Buy Here!

Software Testing Templates - 37 Microsoft Word

• Acceptance For
• Acceptance Test Plan
• Action Item Log
• Change Control Form
• Change Control Log
• Change Control Log – Detailed
• Change Request Form
• Data Access Control Form
• Enhancement Request Form
• Installation Completion Form
• Issue Log
• QA / Program Manager Checklist
• Quality Log
• Release Control Form
• Requirements Testing Report
• Risk Log
• Risk Management Plan Form
• Test Plan Template
• System Final Release Sign-off Form
• System Requirements Sign-off Form
• System Test Cycle Sign-off Form
• System Test Environment Sign-off Form
• System Test Plan Sign-off Form
• System Test Sign-off Form
• Test Case Template
• Test Case Validation Log
• Test Plan Review Checklist
• Test Plan Task Preparation
• Test Record
• Test Script Allocation Form
• Test Script
• Team Roles and Responsibilities Form
• Team Training Requirements Form
• Unit Test Plan
• User Acceptance Test (UAT) Report
• Version Control Log
• Web Usability Test Report
• What’s included in this template pack?

What’s in this template pack?

• Test Plan – 29 pages
• Acceptance Test Plan – 21 pages
• 37 Software Testing templates in MS Word format
• 20 Software Testing templates in MS Excel format

Download Now for only $29.99 – Buy Here!

FAQS

Q: What file formats are the templates?

A: Microsoft Word, Excel and Visio.

Q: How soon can I download them?

A: You can download the file instantly. After you pay online, you are sent to a page where you can download the template online.

Q: What is the End User License Agreement?

A: You can read the License Agreement here

Need to know more?

Drop me a line at ivan at klariti dot com and I’ll get back to you asap.

Use this Change Management Plan to address changes which may be encountered during the project lifecycle. Typical areas of change occur in the scope, schedule, budget, and resources.

Use this template to:

• Define the process, tools, and stakeholders that will be used to manage any changes to the project.
• Specify how change requests will be accepted, analyzed, and assessed regarding potential impact on the schedule, budget and scope
• Improve customer relationships, establish greater financial performance, accountability, reduction in project delays, and on- time deliverables.
• Ensure that changes will be proactively managed as they occur and that all changes are coordinated across the project.

This 19 page template pack includes a Change Register, Tracking Log, and Change Request Forms.

Sample Screenshots

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
1.1 Audience
1.2 Purpose
1.3 Constraints
1.4 Change Management Guidelines
1.5 Anticipated Change Volumes
1.6 Points of Contact

2 Roles and responsibilities
2.1 Change Management Chart
2.2 Roles and Responsibilities

3 Change Management Process
3.1 Raise Change Request
3.2 Evaluate Change Request
3.2.1 Change Request Criteria
3.2.2 Change Type
3.2.3 Status Type
3.3 Update Change Request Log
3.4 Assess the Change Request
3.4.1 Perform Feasibility Study
3.5 Approve/Reject Change Request
3.6 Implement Change Request
3.7 Update the Project Plan

4 Schedule

5 Costs

What’s included in the template pack

The templates are in Microsoft Word/Excel. The template pack includes the following documents:

• Change Management Plan 19 pages
• Change Request Forms x 2
• Change Request Form x 1
• Change Register x 1
• Tracking Log x 1

Download Now for only $9.99 – Buy Here!

FAQS

Q: What file formats are the templates?

A: Microsoft Word, Excel and Visio.

Q: How soon can I download them?

A: You can download the file instantly. After you pay online, you are sent to a page where you can download the template online.

Q: What is the End User License Agreement?

A: You can read the License Agreement here

Need to know more?

Drop me a line at ivan at klariti dot com and I’ll get back to you asap.